Bulgaria Registers 343 000 Unemployed in Q3 2011

Photo by BGNES

According to the Q3 2011 Labour Force Survey of the National Statistical Institute (NSI), Bulgaria's economically active population aged 15 - 64 is 3317.3 thousand.

The economic activity rate of that age group in Q3 2011 stands at 66.8%, registering a decrease of 0.3 percentage points on the year.

NSI concludes that the activity rate drops by 1.1 percentage points for men and goes up by 0.4 percentage points for women, reaching 70.3% and 63.2%, respectively.

In the third quarter of 2011, the employment rate for Bulgarians aged 15 - 64 is 59.9%, 62.4% for men and 57.3% for women, respectively.

Compared to the same period of 2010, the Q3 2011 employment rate (15-64 years) posts a decline of 0.7 percentage points, with a drop of 1.7 percentage points in the male category.

In the period between Q3 2010 and Q3 2011, the employment rate for Bulgarians aged 20 - 64 years (an Europe 2020 indicator) falls by 1.0 percentage point to 65.4%, 68.3% for men and 62.6% for women, respectively, with the female category retaining the value of the indicator from the same quarter of 2010.

In the third quarter of 2011, the employment rate for the age group 55 - 64 years stands at 44.2%, up by 1.2 percentage points from the third quarter of 2010.

The employment rate rises by 0.6 percentage points to 50.2% for men and by 1.6 percentage points to 38.9% for women in that age bracket.

In Q3 2011, Bulgaria's economically inactive population aged 15 - 64 amounts to 1 652.2 thousand, or 33.2% of the total population in the same age group.

Of all economically inactive Bulgarians in that age bracket, 736.8 thousand (29.7%) are men and 915.4 thousand (36.8%) are women.

Economically discouraged persons aged 15 - 64 amount to 229.9 thousand (131.2 thousand men and 98.7 thousand women) in Q3 2011, up by 10.4 thousand on the year solely due to men.

In the third quarter of 2011, the total number of employed persons aged 15 years and over stands at 3 018.3 thousand, with a relative share of 46.6% of the total population of the same age.

Compared to the same period of 2010, their number falls by 85.9 thousand (by 2.8%) and their relative share - by 0.9 percentage points.

The number of employed men drops by 3.7%, reaching 1 577.8 thousand, while employed women are 1 440.5 thousand,1.7% less than those in the third quarter of 2010.

In terms of level of education, employed persons are: university graduates - 820.3 thousand (27.2%), high school graduates - 1 846.8 thousand (61.2%) and elementary school grade or lesser - 351.2 thousand (11.6%).

In the period between Q3 2010 and Q3 2011, persons who only completed elementary school registered the steepest drop in employed persons by 11.4%.

Of all employed persons aged 15 years and over, 6% are employers, 7.8% -self-employed, 87.6% - employees and 1.0% are unpaid family workers.

Compared to the third quarter of 2010, employed persons in all of these categories decline, with the steepest drop of 12.2 recorded in the number of employers.

Of all employees, 1 936.4 thousand (73.2%) work in the private sector, while 707.2 thousand (26.8%) work in the public sector.

The share of women employed in the private sector is 46.0%, while the share of women employed in the public sector are 58.1%.

In Q3 2011, a total of 1 841.9 thousand (61.0% of all employed) worked in the service sector, 957.9 thousand (31.7%) - in the industry and 218.5 thousand (7.2%) - in agriculture.

Compared to Q3 2010, the industrial sector registers the biggest drop of 5.6% in the number of employed persons.

In the third quarter of 2011, the unemployed are 343.0 thousand and the unemployment rate stands at 10.2%.

Compared to the same quarter of 2010, the number of unemployed goes up by 16.4 thousand (5.0%), while the unemployment rate adds 0.7 percentage points.

Over the period, the unemployment rate rises by 1.0 percentage point for men and by 0.4 percentage points for women, with male unemployment (11%) outpacing female unemployment (9.2%) by 2.0 percentage points in Q3 2011.

In the third quarter of 2011, the number of unemployed aged 15 - 24 is 59.6 thousand, as compared to 61.5 thousand in the same quarter of 2010.

The youth unemployment rate is 23.3% - 22.9% for men and 23.9% for women.

In the period between Q3 2010 and Q3 2011, the number of long-term unemployed spikes by 1/3 to reach 207.0 thousand, while the number of persons unemployed for less than a year (136.0 thousand) falls by 20.3%.

In Q3 2011, the long-term unemployment rate incerases by 1.7 percentage points to 6.2%.

The long-term unemployment rate adds 1.9 percentage points to 6.9% for men and 1.2 percentage points to 5.3% for women.

In Q3 2011, a total of 280.4 thousand (81.8%) of all unemployed have had prior work experience, while 62.6 thousand (18.2%) are looking for their first job.

We need your support so Novinite.com can keep delivering news and information about Bulgaria! Thank you!